Hello, I've been noticing many interesting deep sky objects being shared on this platform, and I'm curious about how people discover these targets to photograph. I have Sky Safari and other Stellarium programs, but they don't offer much assistance in finding uncommon objects. Do individuals use physical resources to locate specific areas in the sky, or is there an online database available? Most of the resources I possess only provide information on common deep sky objects, yet I keep seeing intriguing ones being shared here. I would appreciate insight into how others discover them!
Thanks
Scott
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I use the Sky and Telescope pocket Sky Atlas. It shows most of the objects worth photographing. Not all but it's pretty good and very handy. You can also use the sky atlas in NINA for this task. Because it's photographic sky survey based, you can quickly check out if an object is in a good location to image and you then can use the framing assistant to see what your framing would look like. Lastly, you can zoom out in the FA and see if there's anything interesting nearby.
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Telescopious has been my main go to in addition to actually browsing astrobin.
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Telescopius is where I find things I want to image mainly. For me it's my first step anyway. Once I find an object that interests me I'll search it on here to get a feel for what kind of equipment most people use to see if it's something I could maybe do. Then finally I take it in to Stellarium where I've got my horizon loaded, and check if/when/how long it's visible.
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NINA sky atlas has just about every object imaginable, give it a try.
You can search objects by type, size, magnitude, altitude in the sky in a timeframe of your choosing, coordinates and so on.
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You can also check the book series of Annals of the Deep Sky of Jeff Kanipe
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Heck, that’s what I use Astrobin for!
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Stellarium has access to a plethora of sky surveys. DSS Red is pretty much the standard every day use survey, which is primarily Ha. Another good survey to use is AKARI for things like dust, which is visible in IR. See below.  |
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andrea tasselli:
Nothing beats paper. I tend to agree with Andrea here. Although I use online sources as well, I like magazines such as Sky & Telescope. Also, I strongly recommend checking out @Gary Imm 's works (he has 4 books on Amazon). I recently bought his vdB catalog book which I keep browsing! It is also available online. For all his efforts, I also recommend checking his scholarship out.
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The various tables on PNnet give you a lot of options for weird/obscure PN and PN like objects: https://planetarynebulae.net/EN/page_recherche.phpFor photography purposes, it is best to scroll 'unpublished candidates' and look for things with a suitable diameter for your rig
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I use the online sky atlas aladin, from the university of Strassbourg https://aladin.cds.unistra.fr/AladinLite/Wim
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I still use a combination of things, because I never found the ONE solution. I almost always start in stellarium and switch on the lesser used catalogs in the DSO settings menu. You will be amazed, how much appears here and there, even if you don't expect much in an area. The already suggested sky surveys do a good job to help visualizing what you are looking at. If I found something that fits my field of view, I do an online search to find some images and then decide what to shoot. But be aware, that the subjects with lesser images (in other words the rare ones) are usually more difficult to photograph and process. You usually need a lot of integration time and maybe even different equipment. I mean: it's worth to put the effort in, but it is much harder to get to a really good result in the end. Looks like there's a good challange here  Just recently I got to the same point as you and put together a list of subjects that are not as famous as others. Getting the final results is a slow process. We'll see how it goes… CS Christian
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Scott, I have put together 2 free resources to address exactly your request for identifying lesser known objects to image. The first is the free Excel-based Deep Sky Compendium, the 5th edition of which is shown at that Astrobin link. The Compendium is a free, detailed Excel spreadsheet that provides the astrophotographer with a useful tool for finding interesting deep sky targets to image, specific to the current time and user location. The spreadsheet contains a database of 3145 deep sky objects and 26 cross-referenced catalogues. Each object has an image, a description, an imaging rating, a SIMBAD link, an ALADIN link, and 20 pieces of technical data. The spreadsheet runs on both Windows and Mac. For those that don't have access to Excel, I put together the Top 750 Deep Sky Objects. The link is free, and it is also available in book form on Amazon for $22.
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Gary Imm:
Scott, I have put together 2 free resources to address exactly your request for identifying lesser known objects to image.
The first is the free Excel-based Deep Sky Compendium, the 5th edition of which is shown at that Astrobin link. The Compendium is a free, detailed Excel spreadsheet that provides the astrophotographer with a useful tool for finding interesting deep sky targets to image, specific to the current time and user location. The spreadsheet contains a database of 3145 deep sky objects and 26 cross-referenced catalogues. Each object has an image, a description, an imaging rating, a SIMBAD link, an ALADIN link, and 20 pieces of technical data. The spreadsheet runs on both Windows and Mac.
For those that don't have access to Excel, I put together the Top 750 Deep Sky Objects. The link is free, and it is also available in book form on Amazon for $22. Thank you Gary for the work that you been doing.. after Kay mentioned you I went looking on Amazon by your books and start preparing myself for put some orders. Great stuff and thank you for it! You just gain a fan here! Regards, Cesar
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Observatório Astrográfico do Boqueirão:
Gary Imm:
Scott, I have put together 2 free resources to address exactly your request for identifying lesser known objects to image.
The first is the free Excel-based Deep Sky Compendium, the 5th edition of which is shown at that Astrobin link. The Compendium is a free, detailed Excel spreadsheet that provides the astrophotographer with a useful tool for finding interesting deep sky targets to image, specific to the current time and user location. The spreadsheet contains a database of 3145 deep sky objects and 26 cross-referenced catalogues. Each object has an image, a description, an imaging rating, a SIMBAD link, an ALADIN link, and 20 pieces of technical data. The spreadsheet runs on both Windows and Mac.
For those that don't have access to Excel, I put together the Top 750 Deep Sky Objects. The link is free, and it is also available in book form on Amazon for $22.
Thank you Gary for the work that you been doing.. after Kay mentioned you I went looking on Amazon by your books and start preparing myself for put some orders. Great stuff and thank you for it!
You just gain a fan here!
Regards,
Cesar Thank you so much, Cesar! I have spent so much time myself looking for interesting lesser known objects over the last 10 years, including compiling a ton of resources. No reason for me not to share that with others, so that others can avoid all of the paper scouring, database searching and book buying that I have done.
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Gary Imm:
Observatório Astrográfico do Boqueirão:
Gary Imm:
Scott, I have put together 2 free resources to address exactly your request for identifying lesser known objects to image.
The first is the free Excel-based Deep Sky Compendium, the 5th edition of which is shown at that Astrobin link. The Compendium is a free, detailed Excel spreadsheet that provides the astrophotographer with a useful tool for finding interesting deep sky targets to image, specific to the current time and user location. The spreadsheet contains a database of 3145 deep sky objects and 26 cross-referenced catalogues. Each object has an image, a description, an imaging rating, a SIMBAD link, an ALADIN link, and 20 pieces of technical data. The spreadsheet runs on both Windows and Mac.
For those that don't have access to Excel, I put together the Top 750 Deep Sky Objects. The link is free, and it is also available in book form on Amazon for $22.
Thank you Gary for the work that you been doing.. after Kay mentioned you I went looking on Amazon by your books and start preparing myself for put some orders. Great stuff and thank you for it!
You just gain a fan here!
Regards,
Cesar
Thank you so much, Cesar! I have spent so much time myself looking for interesting lesser known objects over the last 10 years, including compiling a ton of resources. No reason for me not to share that with others, so that others can avoid all of the paper scouring, database searching and book buying that I have done. Thank you, Gary, those are great resources. The spreadsheet is incredible. I have no idea how to use it to the best advantage, but I'll learn. lol, I'm going to pick up the book you referenced as well. I already found an object I have to image. HDW 3 looks gorgeous. I'd rather spend a lot of time on lesser-known objects than the more common ones. I'm currently trying to image the OIII nebula near M31. I'm at 40-50 hours so far, and I can make it out in heavily stretched data, so I've got a long way to go with it before it will be remotely useable. My skies are the pits, too, so it makes it challenging.
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Thank you to all for your suggestions!
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Thank you Gary, those are great resources. The spreadsheet is incredible. I have no idea how to use to the best advantage, but I'll learn. lol I'm going to pick up the book you referenced as well. Scott, if you have any questions about the spreadsheet, just send them to me at [email protected]
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Gary Imm:
Scott, I have put together 2 free resources to address exactly your request for identifying lesser known objects to image.
The first is the free Excel-based Deep Sky Compendium, the 5th edition of which is shown at that Astrobin link. The Compendium is a free, detailed Excel spreadsheet that provides the astrophotographer with a useful tool for finding interesting deep sky targets to image, specific to the current time and user location. The spreadsheet contains a database of 3145 deep sky objects and 26 cross-referenced catalogues. Each object has an image, a description, an imaging rating, a SIMBAD link, an ALADIN link, and 20 pieces of technical data. The spreadsheet runs on both Windows and Mac.
For those that don't have access to Excel, I put together the Top 750 Deep Sky Objects. The link is free, and it is also available in book form on Amazon for $22. Gary, would like to move Down Under for a few years and extend your compendium with targets in our marvellous southern sky? 🙂
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Frank Alvaro:
Gary, would like to move Down Under for a few years and extend your compendium with targets in our marvellous southern sky? 🙂 LOL, Frank, I have given that some thought, as you might have guessed. I am such a stickler for completeness, and it would mean the world to me to be able to capture the whole sky. But unfortunately, as much as I love it, this is still only a hobby for me, and I have too many other things here competing for my attention, like wife, grandkids, and my retirement home here. But I do appreciate the thought, Frank, thank you!
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As a final comment here, I bought Gary's book on the best 750 deep sky objects and it is exactly what I was hoping to find. Lots of interesting objects in it.
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As a final comment here, I bought Gary's book on the best 750 deep sky objects and it is exactly what I was hoping to find. Lots of interesting objects in it. So glad to hear that, Scott, thanks! When you finish with these 750 please let me know - I will send you the list of the next 750!
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